PRINCE GEORGE
High today: 11 Low tonight: -4 Details page 2
Citizen
Serving the Central Interior since 1916
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2002
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TODAY
SPORTS
SCHOOLS
With School District 57 looking to close as many as 12
schools to meet a huge deficit, school board trustee Barb Hall
HALL
says there
could be more closures in the future to meet declining enrolments. In other stories after Tuesday’s emotional school board meeting at Vanier Hall, trustees discuss why Blackburn Jr. was included on the list of schools to close and the steps necessary over the next two months before a final decision is made on which schools won’t open again in September. This school district isn’t the only one hurting as the Nechako Lakes district slashed its budget by $3.5 million.
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INDEX
Ann Landers .... ........17
Bridge.........
Business ....... .....22-24
City, B.C........
Classified ...... .....18-21
Comics ........ ........16
Coming Events .. .........2
Crossword ..... ........16
Entertainment .. ........17
Horoscope .....
Lotteries....... ........15
Lifestyles....... ........17
Nation ......... ......7,14
Sports ......... ......8-12
Television...... ........17
World ......... ........15
Canada .com
Health area
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
While training for his run around the world, John Currie floats up the airport hill with the backdrop of downtown Prince George.
Runner planning global adventure
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
John Currie is so hooked on running, he plans to run around the world and get his name into the Guinness Book of World Records in the process.
The 35-year-old Prince George man, who wants to be a history professor, said he started running five years ago when he had a bad knee and “got fed up” waiting to see a doctor.
“So 1 started running and the knee stood up,” said Currie, who runs about 40 km a day even when it’s -25 degrees.
Considering himself a world-class, ultra-marathon runner, Currie became interested in breaking a Guinness world record set by a man who ran from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt, in one year.
Searching the Internet for information on marathon runs, he discovered that Jesper Olsen from Denmark was organizing a world run for three or four people.
Currie is now a member of that team along with Alexander Korotkow from Russia and Edward Kelly from Sacramento, Calif. Such a world run, comprising 50,000 kilometres, “has never been done before,” and it’s expected to take four years starting Jan. 1,2003.
Runners, pushing two modified baby joggers to carry supplies, begin in Greenwich, England, and run to Lisbon, Portugal, averaging no less than 40 kilometres a day.
At Lisbon, the team is officially entered into the 35-runner Trans Europe Footrace to Moscow — a gruelling event with runners doing 70 km a day in under seven hours.
“At Moscow, we pick up our baby joggers and continue over the Ural Mountains and through Siberia to the Mongolian border,” said Currie.
From there, plans are not finalized, but the team will either go south through China and Korea or continue running
through Russia to the Pacific coast.
After that, the team will run around the circumference of Australia, and go on to the tip of South America, up the eastern coast to Mexico and on to New York City.
Then it’s off to Cape Town, along the eastern coast of South Africa to Cairo, across the Sahara Desert to Morocco, through the Strait of Gibraltar and across Spain, France and back to Greenwich.
Guinness Records officials will track the team by using Global Positioning Satellite technology with an uplink to a Website, said Currie, who has the complete support of his wife, Lisa, and 11-year-old son, Corey.
But the story doesn’t end there. Prior to the world run, Currie is doing some running in Europe.
“All three other members of the team are known as world-class runners. I’m the only one who isn’t somebody,” said Currie, who’s hoping these events will give him the status he seeks.
He leaves May 15 to attend a training camp with the Danish national track and field team where a Danish TV station is doing a documentary, and where his team intends to run 50 km daily for three weeks.
During training, the 42-km Copenhagen Marathon takes place, and arrangements are made for Currie’s team to do about an extra 14 kilometres in keeping with their 50 km per day goal. While in Europe, Currie will run the 100 km world championship race through Flanders Fields in Belgium on June 26.
“The best Canadian runner has done it in eight hours, and I intend to do it in less time,” said Currie.
Anyone who’d like to offer their support can call Currie at 614-1786 or e-mail: johnnyrunner@worldrun.org. To follow his adventure visit the Website at: www.worldrun.org
three years
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
Northern Health Authority (NHA) is expecting about 400 job losses, spread across the North, over the next three years, chair Harry Gaims said.
He said about 225 of those jobs will be in working areas of health facilities and he expects that over the three years most jobs will be gone by attrition — retiring, relocating and other reasons.
“A lot will depend on our economy,” said Gairns. “We’re losing health care workers because there are no jobs here for their spouses.”
In the-shorter term, NHA plans on laying off 175 full-time equivalent workers in administration and support work like laundry, housekeeping and food services. Although exact figures aren’t known yet, Gairns said the majority will come from administration.
“You have to remember that we just amalgamated 15 health authorities in the North into one.”
Some of these layoffs with be ex-CEOs, human resource and financial people with the different authorities whose work is now consolidated under one health authority, Gaims said.
Support workers laid off will be those whose work is also now consolidated.
Exact numbers of layoffs among support workers are not yet known.
“Some are non-contract, but in other cases we”ll have to be in touch with unions.”
Speaking of privatization, Gaims said the only thing that might happen this year is the management of housekeeping, laundry and food areas.
“It won’t involve a lot of people. Our philosophy is to work with the people we’ve got. They’ve been a part of the redesign process, and we’ll have to see a substantial savings before we consider contracting out.
In February, 18 redesign teams were established to identify areas where money can be saved or revenues raised.
“We’re counting on our people to meet the targets, and unless something goes awry we don’t intend to be contracting out.”
He said another possibility to save jobs is to reduce overtime “which could pay be for a number of full-time equivalents.” He said at this point in the redesign process, there are no plans to lay off any nurses.
Roll-a-Dome ruling delayed
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
City council postponed a decision on the sale of the Roll-a-Dome property in a closed-door meeting this week, pending research into issues around the sale.
City councillor Gord Leighton said council cannot say what issues it’s looking into, but added the proposed sale of land by the Prince George Golf and Curling Club will eventually be discussed at a public council meeting.
“We’re very mindful of the golf club’s sense of urgency and the extreme sensitivity to the community interest in the issue,” said Leighton, who was acting as mayor after Mayor Colin Kinsley left council chambers citing the potential for a conflict of interest because of his membership in the golf and curling club. “There’s a lot of good things we see in this, we will make a decision once we have more information.”
Three other councillors also left the in-camera meeting, citing potential conflict of interest because of their membership in the club: Don Bassermann, Cliff Dezell and Don Grantham.
The golf and curling club had hoped to get an answer from council on its proposal to sell the
Roll-a-Dome property for $650,000 to a local building contractor, who says he wishes to keep the facility open for recreation.
The club has to get the city’s approval to sell the property under a restrictive covenant on the land.
Golf and curling club manager Denis Dunkley said all they can do is wait.
“From my perspective, it would have been nicer if they went ahead, but they’ve got to do their job,” he said. “They wanted some additional information, so we supplied it to them.”
The club’s 800 or so members are scheduled to vote on the land sale on May 13. The club wants to use the proceeds of the sale to pay down its debt. The membership turned down a vote earlier in the year to sell the Roll-a-Dome, its lands, and additisnal club property for $1.5 million for a casino and hotel complex.
The proposed sale of the land and closure of the recreational facility sparked a protest by A1 Work, who had leased the building for the past two decades. He had support from user groups of the Roll-a-Dome, which include indoor soccer, ball hockey and boxing. The Roll-a-Dome is also used for roller skating, in-line skating, skateboarding, dances, banquets and weddings.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
MILK MAN — Andrew Seabrook toasts his win with milk after his first-place finish in the College Heights Secondary School Milk Run Wednesday. More than 400 students took part in the annual run to raise money for five designated charities across BC: The Disabled Skiers Association of BC; Sportability CP Sports of BC; The Canadian National Institute of the Blind; BC Blind Sports; and BC Wheelchair Basketball.
‘Go after your MLAs/ school parents urged
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Parents must do their part in lobbying their local MLAs and the provincial government in order to try to shake loose more money for adequate funding of education in the North, School District 57 trustees said this week.
Parents have done a good job of expressing their concerns about proposed school closures to trustees, city hall and the Fraser-Fort George Regional District, said trustee Fred McLeod.
Trustees have also done what they
can, in recent meetings with the local MLAs, the minister of education and the minister of finance, to try to obtain more adequate funding, McLeod said.
“Now maybe you should talk to your local MLAs to save schools, or take your case to Victoria, or ask the government officials to create new funding possibilities for schools,” he said.
Board chair Bill Christie agreed.
“It’s your responsibility to go after your MLAs,” he said during Tuesday's board meeting. “You do have the power to go after your MLAs.”
Trustee Bev Christensen said the government’s approach of seeming to provide some funding to alleviate the situation of a high deficit and then withdrawing it in another area later has made it hard for the board to plan ahead. This approach has created obstacles for trustees in trying to act in parents’ and children’s best interests while still budgeting for fiscal restraint.
“It’s almost a joke what’s happening,” Christensen said. “(The level of promised government funding) changes almost every week. We can’t
count on anything when we can’t be certain of what we’re getting.
“If we could get some more money, that would ease our situation somewhat.”
“People should not just write MLAs and say they want more,” McLeod said. “They have to mobilize in their communities concerning what they want.
“What is happening may change the whole social fabric of our communities,” he said. “Every community has to mobilize.”
— See related stories on page 3
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Former Prince George Cougars sniper Trent Hunter suited up for his first NHL game on Wednesday with HUNTER the New
York Islanders in a key playoff win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. Citizen sports editor Jim Swanson talked to Hunter after the big game.
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